Patients repay Japanese generosity

Inspired by a Catholic priest, some 400 leprosy patients and their medical staff have donated 100,000 rupees (US$2,273) to aid victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March as a way of saying thank you.

Patients at the Sumanahalli ('village of people of good will') center, a treatment and rehabilitation facility run in Bangalore archdiocese for people suffering from leprosy, contributed the amount to Japanâ€™s Nippon Foundation yesterday.

The foundation has been a major sponsor of multi drug therapy (MDT), an important treatment for the disease.

India is a major beneficiary because it accounts for more than half the worldâ€™s leprosy cases, said Father George Kannanthanam, director of Sumanahalli.

â€śI am able to live today only because of the medicines given by Japan. I want to give back whatever I can,â€ť said Gurappan, a patient of the centre.

From his pension of 400 rupees per month, he contributed 500 rupees.

In another touching gesture, Mohan, 45, who is blind, contributed 1,000 rupees, a whole month's pension.

Mohan, who usually uses the money for his annual trip home, said: â€śMy life was saved due to the MDT."

The Sumanahalli society, started in 1978, treats some 400 people suffering from leprosy, HIV or other diseases All the societyâ€™s 250-plus staff have also pledged to donate one dayâ€™s earnings.

Some local schoolchildren collected around 2,000 rupees. One of the staff came forward to donate her entire monthâ€™s salary and a convent in the campus saved 30,000 rupees by cancelling a feast.

â€śThere are those without any pension who contributed just 10 to 20 rupees. They also put in whatever they couldâ€ť, said the priest, who initiated a similar campaign after the last tsunami that hit Indian shores in 2004.

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